What
kind of an environmental legacy are we leaving future generations? Are
we taking responsibility for our actions? What are you doing in your
state?

Vince
Carroll, Denver Post columnist, wrote a compelling piece, “A tax
on plastic bags? Bag it”, in an editorial recently. Thank him
for bringing up the issue of plastic versus paper bags for shoppers.
Both bags represent horrific waste and environmental denigration.

We
need to move out of 20th century of waste and abuse—and create
a new paradigm of cotton bag use. I own four cotton bags I have been
using for groceries for 28 years. They’re a bit tattered, but
those bags have saved a lot of oil and trees!

The
Sierra Club reported that Americans use and toss 90 billion paper and
plastic bags annually. For more sobering information, www.treehugger.com
reported: “Over 100,000 birds and marine life die each year, due
to an encounter with plastic debris, much of it plastic bags. In Australia,
alone, 80 million plastic bags litter beaches and public spaces. That’s
out of nearly 7 billion check-out bags used annually. And because plastic
lasts about, oh, say 500 years, when the bird it killed decomposes,
the bag is freed to injure another. But don’t go thinking that
paper is much better. Oh no!

“It’s
been estimated that the US was responsible for the felling of 14 million
trees to produce the 10 billion paper grocery bags used back in 1999.
Not a figure that is likely to get any less in the meantime. So no,
neither bag is greener. But there is another, that is. And it doesn’t
require some nerd in a white lab coat to calculate what it might be.
Indeed whole towns in Australia figured it out and declared themselves
plastic bag free zones. All retailers are refusing to offer single use
plastic bags. Their secret to success - it’s the reusable bag.
One you use more than once.”

Should
you use paper or plastic? My answer: neither! Go cotton!

Thankfully,
Whole Foods no longer offers plastic bags, but they do offer paper.
They do offer cotton bags, but don’t mandate a financial incentive
to stop using paper. I invite King Soopers, Safeways, Krogers and all
grocery store chains to move toward total cotton bag use driven by financial
incentives.

Where
do brown paper bags come from?

The
www.treehugger.com reported, “Paper comes from trees -- lots and
lots of trees. The logging industry, influenced by companies like Weyerhaeuser
and Kimberly-Clark, is huge, and the process to get that paper bag to
the grocery store is long, sordid and exacts a heavy toll on the planet.
First, the trees are found, marked and felled in a process that all
too often involves clear-cutting, resulting in massive habitat destruction
and long-term ecological damage.”

Where
do plastic bags come from?

Plastic
bags come from oil. In less than 50 years, plastic bags cover the planet’s
land and oceans, and plastic products cause the deaths of millions of
land and marine creatures. Off the coast of San Francisco, California,
three million tons of plastic bags and containers create the “Great
Pacific Garbage Patch”. Humans add another 2.5 million pieces
to that plastic patch daily as they toss their trash. Today 46,000 pieces
of plastic float on every square mile of Earth’s oceans. It’s
pretty sickening and I’ve seen it firsthand. Thankfully, Oprah
reported on that “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” with it being
60 feet deep in places. It’s humanity’s greatest sacrilege
against nature. In a few words, it’d downright sickening and immoral!

In
the end, plastic proves deadly, unsightly, disgusting and counter to
everything in nature. The faster we stop using plastic containers, the
better. Or, we must create a compelling 10 cent deposit law on everything
bought in retail stores. The great State of Michigan enjoys such a law
for the past 20 years. Their roadways, lakes and streams enjoy pristine
beauty. Why? No matter who tosses their plastic containers, an armada
of kids picks them up for that 10 cent reward.

Vince
said to “bag it,” but I say, let’s move out of the
past, deal with the damage plastic bags create—and move toward
cotton bags used at all retail outlets both grocery and mercantile.
The fact remains that humans prove irresponsible and careless. Thus,
those of us that care must put into place a system that no longer allows
the village idiots among us to toss their plastic. Even idiots will
return a piece of plastic for a 10 cent reward.

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When
the clerk asks you, “Paper or plastic?,” you can respond,
“Here are my 28 year old cotton bags!”

Listen
to Frosty Wooldridge on Wednesdays as he interviews
top national leaders on his radio show "Connecting the Dots"
at www.themicroeffect.com
at 6:00 PM Mountain Time. Adjust tuning in to your time zone.

Frosty
Wooldridge possesses a unique view of the world, cultures and families
in that he has bicycled around the globe 100,000 miles, on six continents
and six times across the United States in the past 30 years. His published
books include: "HANDBOOK FOR TOURING BICYCLISTS" ; “STRIKE THREE! TAKE
YOUR BASE”; “IMMIGRATION’S UNARMED INVASION: DEADLY CONSEQUENCES”; “MOTORCYCLE
ADVENTURE TO ALASKA: INTO THE WIND—A TEEN NOVEL”; “BICYCLING AROUND THE
WORLD: TIRE TRACKS FOR YOUR IMAGINATION”; “AN EXTREME ENCOUNTER: ANTARCTICA.”
His next book: “TILTING THE STATUE OF LIBERTY INTO A SWAMP.” He lives
in Denver, Colorado.